Lilac Honey Cake

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The lilacs are just beginning to bloom here in northwest Montana. It's a lovely sight and smell and a welcome sign of the season's change. Those edible flowers are also permission to get creative in the kitchen. Those lovely blooms add a light floral flavor and beautiful decorative touch to cakes which is exactly how this lilac honey cake was born.

An elderly neighbor of mine took a fall during a hike, which has required surgery. She's left using a walker for the time being and well quite miserable. She loves the lilacs as much as I do, both for looking at and for eating. While I know a cake won't cure what ails her, I thought a lilac cake might just lift her spirits.

Cookbook Inspiration

In looking for inspiration, I turned to my copy of Cake Stand by Quinn Veon. This lovely cookbook features recipes using produce from the garden or farmer's market. There wasn't a specific lilac cake but I knew I could adapt something to fit my specific needs. Which is one of the greatest things about Cake Stand – don't have kale for the chocolate kale cake, substitute spinach. No blueberries, try raspberries instead. Using the garden for dessert and sharing is always a splendid idea, in my opinion. I chose the Milk & Honey Cupcakes and made just a few modifications for my lilac honey cake.

Simple Modifications

The milk & honey cupcakes recipe was obviously for cupcakes. I wanted to make a cake and figured I could just watch the baking time more closely. There is more sugar and honey in the original recipe. I cut both back figuring it would be more appropriate for my elderly neighbor's palate – had I been making these for someone different I would have left the original amounts. I added 1/2 cup of tightly packed lilac blossoms to the batter for flavor, the color mostly disappears in the cake itself during baking.

Frosting & Decorating

In Cake Stand, the cupcakes come with the suggestion of using the author's Sweet Honey Frosting. That frosting is delicious but requires cream cheese and I didn't have any around. I chose to go with a simple vanilla buttercream but most any frosting would be delicious, use your favorite. I only frosted the top for simplicity sake but frost the sides, too, if desired. For decorating, I simply sprinkled some lilac blossoms around the edge and love how it turned out.

Yield: 6 Large Servings

Lilac Honey Cake

Make the most of beautiful seasonal flowers and delicious honey with this simple to bake and utterly delightful lilac honey cake.

Ingredients

½ Cup Salted Butter, softened

¼ Cup Sugar

½ Cup Lilac Blossoms, packed tightly

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

2 ¼ Cups Unbleached, All-Purpose Flour

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

½ Cup Buttermilk

½ Cup Honey

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" round cake pan.

Whisk together the flour and baking powder, set aside.

Whisk together the honey and buttermilk, set aside.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and lilac blossoms until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and vanilla extract, beating well.

Alternate adding the flour mixture with the buttermilk mixture, beating well after each addition.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverting to a cake plate to cool completely.

Kathie, though I’m not “elderly,” I always prefer things less sweet and develop all my recipes with as little sugar (including honey and real maple syrup) as possible. Then when I make them for just my husband and myself, I cut back on the sugar even more! This cake looks and sounds lovely, but I’d cut it into at least 8 pieces. I like the lilac blossoms sprinkled around the edge, so much lovelier than some fussy decorating!

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2007 - 2019 Kathie N. Lapcevic. You can link to this site as much as you want, but please don't use any content or photographs without my permission. If there's something you want to use somewhere else either online or in print, e-mail me and we'll work it out.